skills

An Insiders Guide to Stats and Skills (or, How Stats and Skills Work - A Treatise) The Basics There are two very common misconceptions about stats - the first is that stats have little to not impact on skills, and the other is that they are far more important than skills. Every Skill is listed under one of the 6 Stats in the 'practice' screen. The Stat a Skill is listed under is the Primary Stat for the Skill. The Stat and Skill work hand in hand, each of equal importance. Two of the Stats have additional functionality beyond the Skills: * Strength - Increases melee damage by 0.375% per point above 70 * Health - Increases hit points at a rate dependent on your race. The Math of Stats and Skills - Tiers The points in a stat or skill are converted into 'tiers', or stepped levels. Formula for calculating the Tiers of any stat or skill is: Tiers = (square root( (8 * value) + 1 ) - 1) / 2 A Tier can be fractional; for example, the base stat of 70 is 11.34 Tiers. This formula has one specific result: every point in a stat is worth just a little less than the previous one. Each tier is a little away than the previous one. Points Tiers from Point Total Tiers 1 1 1 2 0.56 1.56 3 0.44 2 4 0.37 2.37 ... and so on b2222233333333334444444444555555 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345 Something to remember: both stats and skills utilize this EXACT SAME formula and the resulting curve. The only difference is that the curve for stats continues further, for 5 more tiers (33% more than skills). Skills cap at 120 (15 tiers) and stats at 210 (20 tiers). The Math of Stats and Skills - Skill Rolls The Tiers of a Skill and its Primary Stat are added together to get the Effective Skill Value. For example, if you have a Dodge of 40 (8.46) and Agility of 80 (12.16), the Effective SKill is 20.62. Whenever a skillroll is made, a random number is generated using a bell-curve formula. This number ranges from -17 to 50, but will tend to fall around 16.5. The random number is subtracted from your Effective Skill. If the result is 0 or more, your use of the skill succeeds. In many Skill Checks, there may be modifiers applied to the skill roll. In Contested Skill Checks, such as Combat (weapon skill vs opponent's dodge), or Stealth (Notice vs Stealth), one skill value may be subtracted from the roll, or two separate rolls may be compared to see which is greater. Balancing your stats and skills is important! The cost of skills vs the high cost of stats at 6 SP, and the fact that a single stat may impact multiple skills under it, may sometimes make it worth investing a stat. The fact that a skill's tiers and stat's tiers follow the same curve means improving the skill first is often more rewarding. It is up to you to determine what gets you the best value for your SP. Sometimes it doesnt matter much, if the skill already functions 'well enough' or your opponent doesn't have their skills up to counter. Other times, even half a tier worth of points can give you that edge.